Dirty Dick's, Bishopsgate

Back in the mid-late 70's my Uncle and Aunt were landlord and landlady of Dirty Dicks. Many a fun night was had stroking the cat on the wall with my uncle pulling the cord and the cat spinning.

I have not been there in 25 years so cant say what it's like now, but here is a bit of history...

Nathaniel Bentley was an ironmonger who had a shop in Leadenhall Street.
On the eve of his wedding, tragedy struck. His bride-to-be died. So distraught was Nathaniel that he locked up the room in which he had prepared the wedding feast, never to enter it again.
A broken man, he neither washed or changed his clothes. When his cats died he just left them.
The English love an eccentric and his notoriety meant his business flourished. When Nathaniel retired in 1804, the landlord of the Old Port Wine Shop in Bishopsgate bought the contents lock, stock and dead cats. He put them on display at his pub and renamed it 'Dirty Dick's'.

In 1870 the pub was rebuilt from ground level, the wine vaults are part of the original building. The 'dirty' contents were carefully relocated in the new pub.
Sadly it was decided in the mid nineteen-eighties that a clean up was in order and the dirty artefacts were cleared away.
Today's cleaned-up pub is pleasant with bare floor boards and an abundance of timber beams. The upstairs bar forms a gallery and the vaulted cellar houses the restaurant.

8 Dec 2005 20:42